Protect Forests

The Earth cannot sustain life without healthy, thriving forests. They are home to over two-thirds of the world’s species. They are like the green lungs of the planet, supplying us with oxygen and helping to balance rainfall and the climate.

Yet our forests are at risk. They are being logged for chocolate, toothpaste, tissue paper, magazines, animal feed and more. They are being burned, degraded and logged at astonishing rates – as much as 80% of the world’s forests are already destroyed. Unique wildlife like orangutans and the clouded leopard are pushed to the brink of extinction, while indigenous people are uprooted from their traditional homes.

Forest destruction also fuels climate change: The world’s forests store hundreds of billions tons of carbon, many times more the annual greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. When forests are degraded or destroyed, this carbon is released into the atmosphere.

Greenpeace is campaigning for zero deforestation by 2020 to protect what is left of these extraordinary ecosystems.

In East Asia, Greenpeace is working to stop Mainland China and Taiwan’s role in forest destruction – they are major purchasers of paper and wood products from Southeast Asia’s Paradise Forests, the Amazon and Africa’s rainforests.

We are campaigning for logging companies to end deforestation in ancient forests and peatlands, which are critical to protecting biodiversity and reducing climate change.

We are pushing businesses to source their wood and timber from forests that are managed ecologically and sustainably.

We are lobbying governments to strengthen their forest protection policies and set up reserves that safeguard them from commercial activities.

Sumatra’s peat swamp forests not only provide
habitat for endangered species such as the Sumatran
tiger, they are also of critical importance in mitigating
climate change. The clearing and draining of
peatlands is the key reason why Indonesia...